Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Sliding Into a Wetter Pattern - How Vulnerable to Radio Hacking are Minnesota's Emergency Sirens?

56 F. maximum temperature yesterday in St. Cloud.55 F. average high on April 12.44 F. high on April 12, 2016.

.04" rain fell yesterday as of 7 PM.

April 13, 1949: A late-season snowstorm dumps over 9 inches in parts of the Twin Cities metro area.

More Puddles Brewing - But Nothing Severe Yet

"April
prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go" wrote
Christopher Morley in "John Mistletoe." This time of year we get to
flirt with warm fronts but early spring warmth is elusive.

Then
again, be careful what you wish for. As the thermometer rises so does
the risk of severe thunderstorms. Amazingly, severe thunderstorms have
been costlier than hurricanes here in the USA over the last decade. And
2017 is getting off to an inauspicious start: 5 separate billion dollar
weather/climate disasters from January through March; the most since
records began in 1980.

NOAA reports 536 preliminary tornadoes in
2017, to date, the most on record so early in the season. I predict a
lively severe storm season in Minnesota, especially May and June.

Expect
a ration of lukewarm sun today with low 60s. More showers return Friday
into Saturday, even a clap of thunder, but any severe T-storms should
pass off to our south - deeper in the warm, humid air. Sunday looks like
the drier day of the weekend.

Next week is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Minnesota. It's time to prepare.

Going...Going... True,
the skiing will be good into early June from the Rockies westward to
the Sierra Nevada. But snow is going fast, pockets of slush from
northern Wisconsin into the U.P. of Michigan and northern New England.
Map: NOAA.Relatively Quiet Spell.
America sees a bit of a break in the severe thunderstorm department
into the weekend, as heavy showers and T-storms lift across the Midwest
into the Great Lakes Friday and Saturday. Soggy weather over the Pacific
Northwest gives way to drier conditions and badly-needed sunshine over
the weekend. Meteorologists can finally catch their breath. 84-hour 12
KM NAM: NOAA and Tropicaltidbits.com.

Springy Spurts.
No hot fronts brewing, not yet, but temperatures trend a few degrees
above average the next 2 weeks, according to ECMWF. If the sun comes out
Saturday (questionable) 70F is not out of the question in the Twin
Cities. MSP Meteogram: WeatherBell.

El Nino Threat Looms as Pacific Heats Up. Here's an excerpt from The Wall Street Journal: "An El Niño weather phenomenon will likely occur again this year as the Pacific Ocean heats up,
Australia’s weather bureau said Tuesday, bringing potentially bad news
for some of the world’s poorest regions. At the start of 2017,
forecasters around the world were in general anticipating neutral
weather conditions for this year. Now, all models that Australia’s
Bureau of Meteorology uses in forecasting the naturally occurring
phenomenon indicate an El Niño will form this year or in early 2018. The
agency noted that parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean surface are
already one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal..."Fewer Freezing Nights. The growing season is getting longer, nationwide. Here's an excerpt from Climate Central and WXshift: "The
growing season is underway in parts of the U.S., primarily in the
Southeast. As the world warms, the average date of that last spring
freeze is occurring earlier in the year, extending that season. While
the longer growing season does have some benefits, it also raises
concerns about both agriculture and health. Consistently warmer weather
helps pests survive longer while also stressing crops and potentially decreasing yields.
Each crop thrives in a favored temperature range, so net warming can
lead to a geographical shift in areas that have been historically
productive for a particular crop. Correspondingly, higher overnight
temperatures tend to reduce the productivity and quality of grains and
fruits, which can drive up the cost of produce at the supermarket..."

Sorry, Chicago. Nashville Was the USA's Windiest City in 2016. USA TODAY has details: "The windiest city in the U.S. in 2016 was Nashville, according to a yearly analysis of weather data from CoreLogic,
a research and consulting firm. The city came in first among the
nation's largest 279 metro areas, CoreLogic said. The ranking takes into
account both the number of strong wind events as well as the total
force caused by any severe wind gusts of 60 mph or more. Nashville had
21 wind-related events in 2016 and a maximum wind speed of 72 mph. It
was followed by Reno, Jackson, Miss., Cincinnati and Columbia, S.C. , as
the USA's windiest cities last year, according to CoreLogic. All of the
USA's highest wind speeds in 2016 were recorded during Hurricane
Matthew's rampage up the East Coast, with the highest being 101 mph,
which was recorded at Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 6..."

World Record Wind on April 12, 1934.
The record at Mt. Washington held until 1996, when an unmanned weather
instrument at Barrow Island, Australia measured a wind gust to 253 mph
during Typhoon Olivia. More details from The Mount Washington Observatory: "...As
the day wore on, winds grew stronger and stronger. Frequent values of
220 mph were recorded between 12:00 and 1:00 pm, with occasional gusts
of 229 mph. Then, at 1:21 pm on April 12, 1934, the extreme value of 231
mph out of the southeast was recorded. This would prove to be the
highest natural surface wind velocity ever officially recorded by means
of an anemometer, anywhere in the world. "'Will they believe it?' was
our first thought. I felt then the full responsibility of that startling
measurement. Was my timing correct? Was the method OK? Was the
calibration curve right? Was the stopwatch accurate?..." – Log Book entry, Sal Pagliuca.

Photo credit: "The
Mt. Washington Auto Road Stage Office, where the Observatory was first
established, with an anemometer mounted on the roof and thermometer
housing mounted on the northern exterior wall."

America's Flood Insurance System is Sinking. CBS News has the details: "Here’s
some bad news for the 5 million Americans who have flood insurance
policies: Premiums will rise an average 6.3 percent this year, according
to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). But this could be
followed by even worse news when rates rise as much as 25 percent a year
until the NFIP -- now $24 billion underwater and in debt -- becomes
“actuarily sound.” It’s up to Congress to throw policyholders a life
raft, which it has to do by Sept. 30, when the current program expires. Flooding nationwide caused
by torrential downpours and tornadoes, has brought home to millions of
Americans the need for flood insurance, many of whom were surprised to
learn they didn’t have it. An estimated 43 percent thought it was included in their homeowners’ policies. It’s not..."

File image: USGS.Tornado-Siren False Alarm Shows Radio-Hacking Risk. The Wall Street Journal has more on the recent hacking of the emergency sirens in Dallas: "...A
hacker with understanding of radio technology and the right access to
low-cost “software-defined radio” equipment could reproduce the Dallas
siren attack elsewhere, said Chris Risley, the CEO of Bastille Networks
Inc., a San Francisco company that specializes in radio-frequency
security. A hacker might, for example, record the tones emitted during
routine tests and then replay those tones to activate the system. “It
could happen in other cities,” Mr. Risley said. Similar techniques were
used as early as in the 1970s, when early hackers applied them to
manipulate devices on telephone networks, security experts say..."

Photo credit: "Roof
rafters protrude over an upstairs bedroom torn away by a tornado in
Garland, Texas, in December 2015. A tornado warning system was hacked in
Dallas last week." Photo: Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/Associated Press.

NOAA Busts Tornado Myths. AL.com has a good selection of popular myths in need of debunking; here's an excerpt: "...The
idea of opening windows and doors in the event of a tornado - an effort
to "equalize pressure" is a waste of time, NOAA said. "Opening
the windows is absolutely useless, a waste of precious time, and can be
very dangerous. Don't do it. You may be injured by flying glass trying
to do it. And if the tornado hits your home, it will blast the windows
open anyway." If you're in your car when you see a tornado, get under a
bridge or overpass. That's a really bad idea, according to NOAA. You
could get hit by flying debris or even blown out from under the bridge.
You're also creating another safety hazard by leaving your car on the
side of the road..." (Map credit: EF-5 tornadoes since 1950: NOAA SPC).

File photo from Albert Lea tornado on June 16, 2010 courtesy of meteorologist Aaron Shaffer.Palm Sunday 1965: Southern Great Lakes Ravaged by One of the Worst Tornado Outbreaks on Record.U.S. Tornadoes has a very good recap of that horrific day: "On
April 11, 1965, and over a time span of approximately 12 hours, one of
the most infamous tornado events in United States history took place
across the Southern Great Lakes region. Commonly known as the Palm
Sunday Tornado Outbreak (more precisely, the second Palm Sunday Tornado
Outbreak, following one in 1920 and preceding another in 1994),
numerous fast-moving tornadoes were unleashed upon the states of Iowa,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The twisters claimed
over 260 lives, injuring thousands of others and causing hundreds of
millions of dollars in damages. It was the worst tornado outbreak in
Indiana’s history with nearly 140 killed in the state alone. In modern
tornado history, this ranks second to the Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974 in terms of violent tornado count in a single North American outbreak, with 17 F4+ tornadoes..."

Photo credit: "Famous
picture of F4 tornado with two distinct funnels destroying the Midway
Trailer Park near Dunlap, Indiana. Photo by Paul Huffman." (NWS Indianapolis, Indiana)Most Billion Dollar Weather/Climate Disasters in Q1 on Record. Here are a few interesting nuggets from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information that provide perspective on the severity of Q1 weather and climate events in the first 3 months of 2017 across the USA:

"In the first three months of 2017 there have been five weather and climate disaster events
with losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States. These
events included a flooding event, a freeze event, and three severe storm
events collectively causing 37 fatalities.

The number of billion-dollar events
for January–March (five) is the largest number of first-quarter events
in the 1980–present period of record and doubles the average number of
events for January–March over the last 5 years (2.4 events).

The U.S. Climate Extremes Index (USCEI) for the year-to-date was the highest value on record at more than double the average..."

Today's Hurricanes Kill Way Fewer Americans, and NOAA's Satellites Are The Reason Why. Popular Science has a good overview: "...A crucial difference in modern storm forecasting is NOAAs fleet of sophisticated weather satellites.
With such advanced storm-tracking systems, it might seem obvious to
expect that hurricanes kill less Americans than they did decades ago,
but “It’s not an easy number to estimate,” says Franklin. After all,
hurricanes are still deadly, and every storm is different. But evidence
does exist. In a 2007 study
published in Natural Hazards Review, scientists demonstrated that
improved storm forecasting prevented up to 90 percent of deaths that
would have occurred should satellite-less, error-prone technology still
have been used used to predict hurricanes. The researchers found that
between 1970 and 2004, an average of around 20 people died from hurricanes
each year. But if forecasts were as faulty as they were in the 1950s,
they estimated that 200 people would have died each year, simply because
significantly more people had settled into the path of destructive
cyclones..."

Image credit: NOAA. "Hurricane Katrina at its peak intensity. With advanced warnings, most New Orleans residents evacuated before the storm hit."

Severe Thunderstorms More Costly than Hurricanes Over Last Decade. A few statistics at Chicago Tribune made me do a double-take: "...Thunderstorms
— including losses from damage caused by hail, wind and tornadoes —
have surpassed hurricanes as the costliest peril for the insurance
industry in the U.S. over the past decade, said Steve Bowen, director
and meteorologist of Aon Benfield's impact forecasting division. Fewer
hurricanes have been making landfall, but thunderstorm events have
become increasingly damaging. "While the individual losses themselves
may not be as costly as hurricanes, it's sort of death by a million
paper cuts," Bowen said. "You get all of these events that add up."
Every year since 2008, the insurance industry has paid out at least $10
billion for damages from thunderstorms in the U.S., according to data
from Aon Benfield. The costliest year during that period was 2011, when
the bill topped $29 billion. The total is already nearing $5 billion
this year, up from $4.8 billion through March of last year..."

Photo credit: Key West office of The National Weather Service.

The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 Laid Bare the Divide Between North and the South. A story at Smithsonian.com had some perspective I hadn't seen before: "...It
was harder still for Northerners to see the news of 1927—the most
destructive river flood in U.S. history—as an industrial disaster partly
of their own making. After extreme weather swept from the plains states
to the Ohio River valley in fall 1926, levees began bursting in the
Lower Mississippi Valley in March of ’27 and kept breaking through May.
In all, water covered 27,000 square miles, land in seven states where
about a million people lived; 13 major crevasses occurred; roughly
637,000 people became homeless, approximately 555,000 of whom were
racial or ethnic minorities; somewhere between 250 and 1,000 people
died; and financially, direct property losses totaled $250 to 500
million, while indirect losses brought that figure up to $1 billion.
Floodwaters did not fully drain until the end of the summer..."

Photo credit: "After
extreme weather swept from the plains states to the Ohio River valley
in fall 1926, levees began bursting in the Lower Mississippi Valley in
March of ’27 and kept breaking through May." (Science History Images/Alamy)

Greensburg, Kansas Overcame Environmental Disaster and Embraced a Green Future.
I heard the mayor of Greensburg talk about sustainability and how
they've rebuilt the town to take full advantage of wind and solar power
at a recent severe weather conference - it was inspiring and I left the
talk more confident than ever that other towns will follow a similar
path. Why? More resilience and less cost, savings that ultimately get
passed on to consumers. Here's an excerpt at ThinkProgress: "...In the months and years that followed, the Kansas town emerged from the ashes as a green phoenix, thanks in part to Dixson’s efforts. Using money from insurance companies and FEMA, Greensburg built the highest concentration of LEED-certified
buildings in the country. Energy-efficient structures feature natural
daylighting and geothermal heating and cooling. The downtown boasts
walkable roads and LED street lights. Wind turbines and solar panels
provide 100 percent of the town’s electricity. Dixson said the town
wanted to save money and achieve energy independence. Consume less.
Generate your own electricity. Avoid the ups and downs in the price of
fossil fuels. Thanks to their efforts, the people of Greensburg save
hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on energy costs, a huge sum
for a town of 800..."

Photo credit: Greensburg, Kansas. CREDIT: City of Greensburg.

California Reaches Solar Milestone. Here's a clip from a post at Climate Nexus. Details from the San Francisco Chronicle: "Solar power met roughly half of California's electricity demand for the first time on March 11,
according to new estimates from the federal Energy Information
Administration. EIA estimates that almost 40 percent of electricity on
the grid between 11AM and 2PM
came from California's large-scale solar plants, with smaller solar
installations on homes and businesses supplying the rest. When factored
with other sources of clean energy in the state, renewable energy
accounted for more than 55 percent of power on the grid on March 11. The
abundant supply of solar in California this winter and spring has
driven wholesale prices near zero or into the negative during certain
hours..." (File image: Solar City).

This Flower-Shaped Solar Panel Can Power Your Entire Home. The cost is about $12,000, but is there an ROI? Here's a clip from Flipboard: "Meet
the Smartflower: a portable, adjustable solar power system that uses
GPS-based dual axis tracking to follow the path of the sun throughout
the day, similar to the way a sunflower adjusts its petals to face the
sun. In the morning, the Smartflower automatically unfolds and positions
its "petals" at a 90-degree angle, which shifts as the sun moves across
the sky. At night, or when high winds make it unsafe to use, the flower
will draw its modular panels back into a folded position, according to Curbed.
By always maintaining the optimal angle to the sun, the Smartflower is
able to generate 40 percent more energy than traditional solar models..."

Tesla Unveils Its New "Sleek and Low-Profile" Exclusive Solar Panels Made by Panasonic. Here's a clip from Electrek: "...Like
the solar roof, the move is part of Elon Musk’s plan to offer solar
products with better aesthetics in order to create a distinctive brand
that can be differentiated from other installers on a product basis. He
said when first announcing that they were working on such solar
products:

“I think this is really a fundamental part of achieving differentiated product strategy.

For
the solar panels, that means a ‘sleek and low-profile’ look for all
residential installation. Here are the new pictures. They achieved that
“with integrated front skirts and no visible mounting hardware”. That’s a
system developed by Zep Solar, a mounting equipment company acquired by
SolarCity before it was itself acquired by Tesla..."

Walmart, Advanced Microgrid Solutions to Turn Big-Box Stores Into Hybrid Electric Buildings.Greentech Media has details: "Advanced
Microgrid Solutions has landed the world's largest retailer as a
partner: Wal-Mart. On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based startup announced
it is working with the retail giant to install behind-the-meter
batteries at stores to balance on-site energy and provide megawatts of
flexibility to utilities, starting with 40 megawatt-hours of projects at
27 Southern California locations. Under the terms of the deal, “AMS
will design, install and operate advanced energy storage systems" at the
stores for no upfront cost, while providing grid services and on-site
energy savings..."

Why Flying in America Keeps Getting More Miserable, Explained. Vox takes a look at how we got to this place: "...Anyone
who flies regularly has experienced the endless indignities of modern
air travel — the security theater, the cramped seats, the delays, the
missed flights, and all the rest. Making it particularly egregious is
the reality that the crucial ingredient of consumer choice seems to be
missing. Most of us have at one time or another sworn to ourselves that
we will “never” again fly on one airline or another, only to discover
that there are very few airlines one can switch to and that they all
seem dismal in their own way. The airline industry, unfortunately,
suffers from some serious business model flaws— most
notably very high fixed costs in the form of buying and maintaining
aircraft, and the problem that a half-empty flight is almost as
expensive to operate as a full one..."

Circular Runways Could Revolutionize How Airplanes Takeoff and Land. Mashable has the slightly-wacky story which made more sense after watching a video at Mashable: "Circular
runways are a radical redefinition of airport layout. They're designed
to deal with increasing air traffic, allowing for multiple aircraft to
takeoff and land simultaneously. They're the brainchild of Henk Hesselink, a researcher at the Netherlands Aerospace Centre, who hopes they can become a reality by 2050..."

Kelvin Helmholtz Clouds.
These are "wave clouds" that form under very specific atmospheric
conditions. A friend, Mike Huang, was flying above Des Moines when he
snapped the photo above, resembling breaking waves at the shore. Here's
an except of a good explanation at EarthSky: "...Here’s
a special kind of cloud known to scientists as a Kelvin Helmholtz
cloud. These clouds look like breaking ocean waves, with the rolling
eddies seen at the top of the cloud layers usually evenly spaced and
easily identifiable. Kelvin Helmholtz clouds are named for Lord Kelvin
and Hermann von Helmholtz, who studied the physics of the instability
that leads to this type of cloud formation. A Kelvin Helmholtz
instability forms where there’s a velocity difference across the
interface between two fluids: for example, wind blowing over water.
You’ll often see the characteristic wave structure in this type of cloud
when two different layers of air in our atmosphere are moving at
different speeds. The upper layers of air are moving at higher speeds
and will often scoop the top of the cloud layer into these wave-like
rolling structures..."

Another Record Low Month for Sea Ice. Here's an excerpt from Climate Central: "Climate change continues its rapid reshaping of the Arctic as yet another month saw sea ice set a record-low mark.
March data just released by the National Snow and Ice Data Center marks
six months in a row of near-record or record-low sea ice for the
region. It’s a story that’s been reported so often recently,
it risks feeling almost normal. But make no mistake. There has never
been a run like this in nearly 40 years of satellite data. Sea
ice was missing from a 452,000-square-mile area it usually covers in
March. That’s an area roughly the size of Sweden. Warm weather was yet
again a major culprit in the case of the missing ice..."

Image credit: "Arctic
sea ice extent is record low for this time of year and has been since
October 2016 with the exception of December (which was still the
second-lowest extent on record)." Credit: Zack Labe.

Climate Change a Character in Discovery's "Deadliest Catch". Here's an excerpt of a story at AP: "...It's
a big risk for us to discuss climate change because so many people can
think that it's a political issue when really it isn't, particularly in
the context of the fishing fleet," said R. Decker Watson, Jr., one of
the show's executive producers. The
waters off Alaska that provide the livelihood for the show's real-life
stars warmed by a dramatic 4 degrees in one year. The cold water-loving
crab is depleted in the traditional fishing areas, so some of the boats
strike out for new territory that is more dangerous because of fiercer
storms and is further from rescue workers if something goes wrong, he
said. In fact, the new
season documents one vessel lost at sea. It was not one of the crews
regularly featured in the series, but all of the regulars knew who was
involved, he said..."

Build Better Energy Future for Montana.
Here's an excerpt of an Op-Ed from a self-described millenial who just
met with one of Montana's U.S. Senators about (true) energy independence
at Missoulian: "...If
Daines cares about jobs, he should work with state leaders to remove
barriers to solar energy. Last year, job growth nationwide in the solar
industry was 17 times greater than the rest of the economy, but Montana
lags far behind other states, ranked 40th in installed capacity. Our
leaders should be capitalizing on this growth potential and offering
coal communities a pathway to the clean energy economy - not making
empty promises to revive a dying industry. The Clean Power Plan would
have helped local communities down this path. A bipartisan poll last
year showed Montanans overwhelmingly favor more clean energy -
especially millennials. My generation sees the absurdity of Daines' "all
of the above" energy rhetoric that ignores the need to transition away
from fossil fuels. We know not all energy sources are equal: the fossil
fuels of the past create carbon pollution that makes us sick and
overheats our planet. When we met, Daines said he is concerned about
climate change and discusses it often with his kids. If that's true, he
must see that "all of the above" is incompatible with the urgency of the
climate crisis, which disproportionately impacts my generation -
including Daines' children..."Shifting Climate Has North Dakota Farmers Swapping Wheat for Corn. Here's an excerpt from NPR: "...North Dakota's assistant state climatologist, Daryl Ritchison,
says on average, rainfall has been two to three inches greater in the
past two decades. "And of course, that's the average over that time
period. There's been years where, of course, we've had literally eight
or 10 inches above average," Ritchison says. That may not sound like a
lot, but it's a big change from the semi-arid conditions that prevailed
in the previous 60 years. Because of a warming trend, the growing season
here has also increased two to three days a year in the last couple of
decades, and by two weeks over the past century. Ritchison says the
added warmth and moisture have helped make corn a successful crop in
North Dakota..."

Photo credit: "Corn is loaded onto a truck on Larry Slaubaugh's farm in Wolford, N.D. He's seen a big shift from wheat to corn in recent years." John Ydstie/NPR.Climate Change Will Make American Farmers' Lives More Difficult.
A longer growing season sounds good at first blush, but dig a little
deeper and you start to understand how a more volatile climate system
may not be a positive development for America's agriculture economy.
Here's a clip from Truthdig: "...We’re
predicting warmer and wetter springs, and drier, hotter summers,” Dr
Davis says. “The season fragments and we start to see an early-early
season, so that March starts looking like a good target for planting in
the future. In the past, March has been the bleeding edge; nobody in
their right mind would have planted then. But we’ve already seen the
trend for early planting. It’s going to keep trending in that direction
for summer annuals.” Worldwide, scientists have repeatedly warned that
climate change driven by human dependence on fossil fuels presents
serious problems for farmers: many crops are vulnerable
to extremes of heat, and climate change presents a hazard for harvests
in Africa, Asia and Europe. America in particular could face substantial
losses,
and, at the most basic level, the grasses – almost all the world’s
staple foods are provided by the grass family – may not be able to adapt to rapidly changing climates..."

Photo credit: "America’s farmers may have to adapt to climate change by planting new hybrids—or new crops altogether." (Rich/Flickr) How Climate Change Could Make Air Travel Even More Unpleasant. It's all about the configuration and strength of the jet stream, according to a story at The Washington Post: "...Williams
focused on an area in the North Atlantic known for heavy air traffic,
particularly between Europe and North America, and limited his
simulations to winter, when turbulence is known to be at its highest. He
examined 21 different wind-related characteristics known to be
indicators of air turbulence levels, including wind speed and changes in
air flow direction. The study found an increase in turbulence across
the spectrum. Light turbulence was projected to increase by an average
of 59 percent, light-to-moderate by 75 percent, moderate by 94 percent,
moderate-to-severe by 127 percent and severe by 149 percent, although
there’s substantial uncertainty associated with the more severe
categories..."

File photo credit: "In this June 3, 2016, photo an American Airlines passenger jet takes off from Miami International Airport in Miami." (Alan Diaz/Associated Press).New Study Links Carbon Pollution to Extreme Weather. Here's an excerpt from Dr. John Abraham at The University of St. Thomas, writing for The Guardian: "...So,
scientists really want to know what affects these undulations – both
their magnitudes and their persistence. We also want to know whether
these undulations will change in a warming planet. This is precisely
where the new study comes in. The researchers used both weather
observations and climate models to answer these questions. What they
found was very interesting. Using measurements, the authors documented
what conditions led to extreme weather patterns that persisted for
extended durations. They found that many occur when the jet stream
becomes stationary with the undulations stuck in place. They also saw
that under certain situations, the jet stream undulations do not
dissipate in time; they become trapped in a wave guide..." (Image: NASA GSFC)Climate Change is a National Security Issue, Says the Military. Here's an excerpt from Nevada Public Radio: "Climate
change is not a partisan issue. It’s a national and global security
issue. When people are forced from their homes because of drought, they
end up as refugees in other areas. This puts a strain on the systems of
those who take in refugees. The new people feel marginalized as the old
residents feel threatened. That may lead to anger and the susceptibility
to radicalization of the refugees. All because they didn't have enough
rain to grow food. Retired Brigadier General Dr. Stephen Xenakis
says that's one scenario that makes climate change a threat to national
security. War plays a part in the displacement of refugees, as we have
seen in Syria. Any disruption that leads to personal insecurity will
lead to global insecurity..."